Hi guys, I'm new. This is actually my first post! Anyway when I was a kid a remember when roman/john was dating Diana Colville ( Genie Francis ) after Deidre Hall had left, &'Marlena was " Dead ". When Roman, & Diana were on screen they were often being watched by a mostly unseen woman. You would see maybe her shoes, & hands, but nothing else, however Marlena's name would often be randomly brought up! I don't know if perhaps Deidre had been in talks at the time to return though she didn't till years later, or if maybe they were toying with a replacement actress? Either way it seemed clear that it was intended to be Marlena, but nothing came of it. Plus when she did eventually return it was revealed that despite giving birth, she had actually been in a coma all that time. Anybody remember that one?

They had resolution to this storyline. The woman that was watching Diana & Roman was an actress that Stefano hired (and then held as prisoner). There was a scene where you finally saw the actress' face and she told Diana (and Roman maybe) something along the lines of a crazy man had been holding her captive, and the last we saw of her was her running away as quick as she could. PS: I only remember this in good detail because I did 1988 research in the past few years.